Today’s Text: Romans 3:23-26
For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and
all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by
Christ Jesus. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through
the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate
his righteousness, (Vrs 23-25a)
Words of Devotion
In our culture, sin is no
longer considered an issue. Although some people might admit to making mistakes
or being wrong, few will actually say, "I have sinned." The Lord,
however, takes sin very seriously. Until we learn to see transgression as He
does, we will never understand what happened at Christ's crucifixion.
The cross was God's
perfect answer to a terrible dilemma. Because the Lord is holy and just, He
hates sin and must respond to it with punishment and wrath. Yet He also loves
sinners and wants to be reconciled with them. The cross of Christ was the place
where God's wrath and love collided.
The only way to rescue
fallen mankind from eternal punishment was to devise a plan whereby the Lord
could forgive sins without compromising His Holiness. There was no way to
overlook transgressions; His wrath had to be poured out--either on us or a
substitute. But there was only one possible substitute: the perfect Son of God.
So Jesus came to earth as
a man and suffered the Lord's wrath for us as He hung on the cross. Sin
was punished, divine justice was satisfied, and now God could forgive
mankind without compromising His character. His wrath was poured out on His Son
so that His love and forgiveness could be lavished upon us.
Because of human
limitations, we'll never grasp all that happened while Jesus hung on the cross.
We can begin to comprehend only the physical suffering He endured, but in the
spiritual realm, Christ bore so much more--the very wrath of God. This costly
redemption plan proves God's great love.
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